Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Hannover (2015) {Jazzwerkstatt jw146 rec 2014}

×

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Hannover (2015) {Jazzwerkstatt jw146 rec 2014}

Close

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Hannover (2015) {Jazzwerkstatt jw146 rec 2014}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 486 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 185 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 28 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Jazzwerkstatt | jw146
Jazz / Post-Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz

Hard on the heels of their divisive Blue album released last fall this follow up is a live album that plays to their strength as a forward thinking but accessible band that has one thing that lifts them over many of their colleagues: a wonderful sense of humor. This was lost during their atom by atom reconstruction of the Miles Davis Kind of Blue LP, but here they are on home turf, ripping through lengthy medleys of their own original music, as always mostly named after small towns in Pennsylvania. MOPDTK consists of Jon Irabagon on saxophones, Moppa Elliott on bass, Kevin Shea on drums and Peter Evans on trumpet.

The medley of “Pen Argyl / Ulysses at Troy / Andover / Blue Ball / Effort, Patience, Diligence” runs over thirty minutes and shows the near clairvoyant telepathy that exists between the band members which allows them to shift between different tempos and themes taking cues from each other and allowing for both solo space and collective playing. The winkingly fun “Is Granny Spry” leads off the next collection of MOPDTK themes including “Dunkelbergers / Baden / Little Hope” allowing each member of the band to make their own statement and even adding some light electronics for spice. The relatively compact “President Polk” ends the first set of this live recording, before the band returns to pull out all of the stops with “My Delightful Muse / Hideaway / A Night in Tunisia” which shows their ability to work with different speeds and thematic material, as well as using a bracing shot of a jazz standard to conclude. The audience seems a little bewildered with the music and the between song banter, but in a good way. This is a group that is always full of surprises (see Blue) but is at the core a group of wonderful and highly talented musicians dedicated to making their own original statement.

As many have noted during the years, Mostly Other People Do the Killing are a band that, while really enjoyable to listen through the medium of recorded music, come fully into their own during concerts. It’s on these occasions, in small clubs and intimate venues, that the listeners get to experience the unfiltered and unhinged impact of Moppa Elliott’s idiosyncratic vision, his often ingenious compositions, and the improvisations that Peter Evans (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (saxophone), Kevin Shea (drums, electronic effects), and Elliott himself (double bass) twist and twirl around the composed guidelines. Their approach is rooted in the past but open to the present and sometimes childishly anxious to explore the future.

Hannover captures one of the quartet’s performances from early 2014 in Hannover, Germany. It’s a recording, rich in tone and with well-placed auditive cues, that both provides a snapshot of the group’s live performances and sublimates their whole career. Because of that, to talk about Hannover is to talk about this band’s entire output. In that regard, Hannover once again demonstrates how Mostly Other People Do the Killing are an ensemble that feels and understands jazz, a collective of musicians that insist on imbuing their music with a jovial and contemporary sense, dismissing mainstream ideas of jazz as evergreen-laden, immutable, and dust covered music. Not an echo of an age long gone nor a relict of the past, but a live and alive music that simultaneously questions and cherishes its traditions and heritage.

Hannover works as a fairly good approximation of the group’s live energy, as much as realistically possible for a static representation of music. The feeling of authenticity is augmented by the arrangements of the tracks which are, as is customary for Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s shows, segmented into sets and suites that flow from one composition to another, interrupted, broken into pieces, and punctuated by solo escapades and amusing detours. The result? A record that feels fragmented by the very nature of the band, yet cohesive despite the apparent disregard for structure. One segment might begin with the musicians indulging in pure swing, hard-bop or even cool jazz, but will then, on a whim, start breaking under the stress of subtly invasive anachronisms - electronic effects, solos, and improvisations akin to the aesthetics of contemporary jazz and electroacoustic music. It takes but a few beats for the musicians to jump from the honest enthusiasm of exploring jazz’s standard phrases to the deconstruction and subversion of those same licks. Yet, in all of this apparent chaos, with the group not afraid to visit pop and rock idioms, purposefulness and new structures emerge.

Between the uncharacteristically characteristic groove and melody on “Pen Argyl / Ulysses At Troy / Andover / Blue Ball / Effort, Patience, Diligence” and the sparkly climax on “My Delightful Muse / Hideaway / A Night In Tunisia”, Hannover gives us a chance to experience time and again the mischievous attitude exposed through Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s individual and collective explorations and the constant dichotomies of modern jazz, improvised music, and well-known jazz traditions.

×

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Hannover (2015) {Jazzwerkstatt jw146 rec 2014}

Close

×

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Hannover (2015) {Jazzwerkstatt jw146 rec 2014}

Close

×

Mostly Other People Do the Killing - Hannover (2015) {Jazzwerkstatt jw146 rec 2014}

Close